Kate Perugini

Sir John Everett Millais' Portrait of Kate Perugini, Daughter of Charles Dickens (1880) is up for grabs at Sotheby’s London auction of British & Irish Art on 13 November, estimated value £150,000 - £200,000 (CLICK). The unusual pose was chosen by the sitter herself. The painting was a belated wedding present to Kate on the occasion of her second marriage, to Carlo Eduardo Perugini. It depicts a turning point in her life when she was still ostensibly in mourning for her first husband, brother of the author Wilkie Collins. Kate's portrait has been widely displayed in major exhibitions over the last twenty years and deserves a place in the National Portrait Gallery. Whether NPG can afford it...?